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Christian Pilots and the Rapture
BY DAVID MIKKELSON
“The FAA
does not have any regulations referencing religious beliefs.”
Claim: Airlines will not pair
Christian pilots and co-pilots out of fear that the Rapture will snatch away both crew
members capable of landing the flight.
|
FALSE
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Examples:
[Collected
on the Internet, 2003]
I just heard for the third time in as many years that some
airlines will not put a whole flight crew of “Christian believers” in the same
plane, just in case the “rapture theory” is true.
I guess the thought is that the plane would be left unmanned and
crash into whatever and kill thousands (like 9/11) if the rapture theory turns
out to be correct Bible doctrine.
[Collected on the Internet, 2004]
I was raised a Southern Baptist and twice now a preacher has
made reference to airlines pairing their pilots with one Christian (or
saved)and one non-Christian (or un-saved). This is done on
the pre-text that if and when the 2nd coming of Christ
happens and the one Christian pilot is taken into the clouds with Christ,
leaving the non-Christian pilot to supposedly land the plane safely
alone. One preacher specifically mentioned American Airlines as having this
policy.
Origins: While many of those of the Christian
faith may be unfamiliar with the concept of the faithful suddenly disappearing
from the face of the Earth, this belief permeates a number of fundamentalist
branches of Christianity. Known as “The Rapture,” it refers to a time when
Jesus will return to claim the faithful, drawing Christians (both the still
living and the already dead) up into the clouds to meet Him. It is said this
event will be followed by seven years of famine, plagues, pestilence, and three
world wars before the Savior returns, an interval often referred to as “The
Tribulation.”
The
basis for belief in the Rapture lies in the Bible, specifically in this passage from 1
Thessalonians:
“For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with
him.
For
this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and
remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For
the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the
clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore
comfort one another with these words.”
Those
who believe in the Rapture hold as a tenet of faith the sudden celestial
appearance of Christ at some future unknowable date, immediately followed by
the irresistible summoning heavenward of all who follow His teachings.
The
faithful will be pulled towards the Christ the way iron filings are pulled
towards a magnet, rendering the Earth depopulated of the godly and leaving the
godless (or at least the Christ-rejecting) to battle their way through the
horrors of this world’s final seven years.
The
Rapture interpretation of 1 Thessalonians is not shared by the
majority of Christians and appears to date to 1909, when the Scofield Reference
Bible (King James Version) was published.
Prior
to that time, this parsing of 1 Thessalonians’ “caught up in the air” passage was unknown, although in
the 19th century theologian J.N. Darby popularized the idea that
there would be a “secret rapture” seven years before the Christ really
returned, and the non-Christians who didn’t disappear into the air would be
left to face the anti-Christ.
Rapture
believers envision a time when the faithful will be abruptly swept into the
safety and calm of Heaven, even as their less stalwart human brethren live on
to battle great evil and suffering that will culminate in the end of the world.
Part
of that envisioning process is imagining not just the nightmare of the
post-Rapture earthly existence their faith will spare them from knowing, but
also the immediate effect their departure will have on those fated to remain
behind.
From
this visualization springs the belief about airline or FAA regulations
restricting Christian flight crews from serving together lest the Rapture
snatch away everyone who can keep a plane in the air.
Because
those who accept the Rapture as an article of faith plan their lives with this
event in mind, they project others must be doing so as well.
The
presumption is further fueled by Rev. Tim LaHaye’s and Jerry
Jenkins’ Left-Behind series of novels, in the first of which
Pan-Continental Airlines’ Capt. Rayford Steele weathers the
disappearance of many of his passengers during an overnight flight to England.
How
far the “Christian pilots and co-pilots barred from serving together”
supposition dates back is anyone’s guess, but we have recorded sightings of it
from 1993, so it certainly has been part of the canon of widely-held beliefs
for some time.
The
rumor has come to us variously as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or
“the airlines” restricting flight crew composition on religious basis out of
concern that the Rapture will otherwise bring planes crashing to the ground.
(Actually,
if the FAA or “the airlines” were concerned about guarding against the
Rapture’s snatching away key personnel, they should also fret over air traffic
controllers, because in their hands lies the safety of all who are in the air
at any given time. A Raptured flight crew would result in the downing of one
plane; Raptured air traffic control centers would endanger multiple planes
attempting to take off or land.)
We asked the FAA about the possibility of its having
a policy that barred the Raptureable from serving with each other, only to be
told by one of its representatives: “The
FAA does not have any regulations referencing religious beliefs.”
Likewise,
our query in this vein to American Airlines was met with the assurance that AA
does not now have such a policy, nor has it ever had one.
Ergo,
since neither airline nor FAA policy covers this event, if you’re unsure of
your state of salvation, pray for an atheist on the flight deck.
The
Rapture stars in another bit of well-traveled lore involving a supposed
freakish fatality.
In
“Leap
of Faith,” a woman who believes she sees the Rapture taking place
jumps out of her car in traffic.
David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994 as a creative
outgrowth of his wide-ranging interests in a variety of subjects (particularly
folklore) and his professional expertise in the computer industry. Handling
everything from researching and writing articles about urban legends to
managing the site’s technical infrastructure, David saw snopes.com (which
antedated the development of automated search engines) quickly become the go-to
place for Internet users to query about anything questionable they encountered
online, establishing it as the oldest and best known online fact-checking
outlet operating today. David’s educational background includes a B.S. in
Computer Science from the University of Texas (San Antonio) and about a zillion
course hours of post-graduate classes at California State University Northridge
taken with no particular degree program in mind. His previous employment
encompassed stints with the News-Chronicle (newspaper), Teledyne Electronics,
USPS, JPL, Digital Equipment Corporation, Rocketdyne, and Health Net (HMO). In
his ever-dwindling moments of free time away from snopes.com, David can be
spotted at board gaming events and conventions.
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